Configure inbound transports

Inbound transports refer to the types of listener ports and their attributes that are opened to receive requests for this server. Both Common Secure Interoperability Specification, Version 2 (CSIv2) and Secure Authentication Service (SAS) have the ability to configure the transport. However, the following differences between the two protocols exist:

• CSIv2 is much more flexible than SAS, which requires Secure Sockets Layer (SSL); CSIv2 does not require SSL.

• SAS does not support SSL client certificate authentication, while CSIv2 does.

• CSIv2 can require SSL connections, while SAS supports only SSL connections.

• SAS always has two listener ports open: TCP/IP and SSL.

• CSIv2 can have as few as one listener port and as many as three listener ports. You can open one port for just TCP/IP or when SSL is required. You can open two ports when SSL is supported, and open three ports when SSL and SSL client certificate authentication is supported.

Complete the following steps to configure the Inbound transport panels in the administrative console:

1. Click Security > Global security .

2. Under Authentication, click Authentication Protocol > CSIv2 inbound transport to select the type of transport and the SSL settings. By selecting the type of transport, as noted previously, you choose which listener ports you want to open. In addition, you disable the SSL client certificate authentication feature if you choose TCP/IP as the transport.

3. Select the SSL settings that correspond to an SSL transport. These SSL settings are defined in the Security > SSL panel and define the SSL configuration including the key ring, security level, ciphers, and so on.

4. Consider fixing the listener ports that you configured. You complete this action in a different panel, but think about this action now. Most endpoints are managed at a single location, which is why they do not display in the Inbound transport panels. Managing end points at a single location helps you decrease the number of conflicts in your configuration when you assign the endpoints. The location for SSL end points is at each server. The following port names are defined in the End points panel and are used for
   Object Request Broker (ORB) security:

   • CSIV2_SSL_MUTUALAUTH_LISTENER_ADDRESS - CSIv2 Client Authentication SSL Port

   • CSIV2_SSL_SERVERAUTH_LISTENER_ADDRESS - CSIv2 SSL Port

   • SAS_SSL_SERVERAUTH_LISTENER_ADDRESS - SAS SSL Port

   • ORB_LISTENER_PORT - TCP/IP Port

   For an application server, click Servers > Application servers > server_name . Under Communications, click Ports . The Ports panel is displayed for the specified server.

   For a node agent, go to System administration > Node agents > node. Under Additional properties, click Ports . The Ports panel for the node agent and deployment manager already are fixed, but you might consider reassigning the ports. For the deployment manager, click System Administration > Deployment manager . Under Additional properties, click Ports.

   The Object Request Broker (ORB) on WebSphere Application Server uses a listener port for Remote Method Invocation over the Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (RMI/IIOP) communications, which is generally not specified and selected dynamically during run time. If you are working with a firewall, specify a static port for the ORB listener and open that port on the firewall so that communication can pass through the specified port. The endPoint property for setting the ORB listener port is: ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS. In the WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment environment, the ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS end point is specified on the node agent. The location service daemon resides on the node agent and piggybacks onto the ORB listener port, which results in needing the port fixed. Also, add the ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS to the other application servers to set their ORB listener port. Each ORB has a distinct listener port. In WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, specify a different listener port. For example, you might specify the following ports:

   • Node agent: ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS=9000

   • Server1: ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS=9811

   • Server2: ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS=9812

   Federated servers can run without the node agent running. When ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS is set to a value of zero (0) or greater, the server does not depend on the location service daemon to redirect connections to the server. When you set ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS, all object references in the namespace specify the connection to the server, not the location service daemon. When the server is running without the node agent, all applications must be accessed through the name server that runs on the application server. The client must change the Java Naming Directory Interface (JNDI) reference to use the host and port of the application server.
   

   ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS
   value = 0	The server starts on any available port and does not use the location service daemon.
   value > 0	The server starts on the port that is specified by the value you enter. The location service daemon is not used.

   Note: Work load management might not work without the node agent running.

   Complete the following steps using the administrative console to specify the ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS port or ports.

   Complete the following steps for the node agent and the deployment manager.

   1. Click Servers > Application Servers > server_name. Under Communications, click Ports > New .

   2. Select ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS from the Port name field in the Configuration panel.

   3. Enter the IP address, the fully qualified Domain Name System (DNS) host name, or the DNS host name by itself in the Host field. For example, if the host name is myhost, the fully qualified DNS name can be myhost.myco.com and the IP address can be 155.123.88.201.

   4. Enter the port number in the Port field. The port number specifies the port for which the service is configured to accept client requests. The port value is used with the host name. Using the previous example, the port number might be 9000.

5. Click Security > Global security . Under Authentication, click Authentication protocol > CSIv2 inbound transport to select the SSL settings that are used for inbound requests from CSIv2 clients. Remember that the CSIv2 protocol is used to interoperate with previous releases. When configuring the keystore and truststore files in the SSL configuration, these files need the right information for interoperating with previous releases of WebSphere Application Server. For example, a previous release has a different truststore file than the Version 6 release. If you use the Version 6 keystore file, add the signer to the truststore file of the previous release for those clients connecting to this server.

ResultThe inbound transport configuration is complete. With this configuration, you can configure a different transport for inbound security versus outbound security. For example, if the application server is the first server that is used by users, the security configuration might be more secure. When requests go to back-end enterprise bean servers, you might lessen the security for performance reasons when you go outbound. With this flexibility you can design the right transport infrastructure to meet your needs.

What to do next

1. Click Save in the administrative console to save any modifications to the configuration.

2. Synchronize the configuration with all node agents.

3. Stop and restart all servers, when synchronized.